Fanzine

[C-Fan]

Well Modified, I gave you over 2 days to take top post and you didn't, so I'm going to resume the write-up.

Saturday routines

Between the stress of arriving super late to the event, and having too much coffee at brunch, I felt jittery and nervous when I was warming up. I squeezed in a few hellos, and picked up my custom made Ivan bag. It was surprisingly playable right off the bat, so I made the decision to risk using it as my backup/juggle bag in my routine. The fact that I was about to do an improvised routine to a silly song didn't make me feel any less jittery. I warmed up by myself, since I didn't want to psych myself out any further.

There are 8 routine competitors on Saturday, and I'm seeded 3rd overall. This buys me some precious time to continue warming up, and by the time I'm on deck I feel physically OK. I know only top 5 make the cut for the next day, but based on the reactions to the routines that preceded mine, I don't have the sense that multiple people beat their seed, so I don't feel too much pressure. I point at Ivan to start the music, and all of a sudden I'm competing.

I had mapped out the first few routine cues on the plane and subway ride, but I had never actually DONE them in practice. I didn't even practice them with my headphones on when I got to the site, which was a mistake. This results in me being slightly off beat to start the routine, but my bigger concern is that I can feel the adrenaline pumping through me, and for some reason I'm incredibly nervous. I feel like I'm moving too fast on everything, but I'm still somehow managing to hit tricks. I get to my first pause cue, which is where I hope to make eye contact with the audience and catch my breath, composing myself. Instead, the toe stall is shaky, so I only get a quick glance at the audience. I'm freaking out, and the next 30 seconds of the routine also feel too fast. Even though I feel out of control mentally, I'm aware of the fact that I haven't dropped yet. I manage to start the juggle on cue, but it feels shaky. Once I get past the atws in the juggle section though, time seems to snap back to normal speed, and the panic has subsided. This is a relief on a few levels. Not only do I feel in control for the first time during the routine, but I also realize that I'm 75% done with the routine and I haven't dropped yet. Despite this newfound confidence, I flirt with a couple drops in the next ten seconds. I force myself to calm down and hit tricks I know I can hit, and mercifully I get the "five seconds" timecall. At this stage I consider finishing with a 5 point trick to end the routine on a strong note, but I'm so tired (between nerves and improvising, I didn't do a great job with energy management) I just want to get the dropless routine. I finish with a flying butterfly kick, and hand catch it.

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s6ICzg1_Y_Y[/youtube]

I take a bow, and walk off stage, half in shock that I managed to go dropless despite the nerves. A few people come up to give me props, and I confess that I improvised 98% of it. I'm still thrilled I went dropless though, since I hadn't actually done a dropless in competition since 2011. I sit off to the side and watch the final 2 routines as I shake off the adrenaline. Brian's routine is very nicely choreographed, with each trick clearly planned out. The contrast to my improv routine is pretty stark. He has 2 drops, but I know it would be a very hard routine to beat in finals if he went dropless. Evan goes last, and I watch with bated breath. I saw Evan's finals routine at Worlds, so I knew he was capable of a strong routine...but I wasn't sure if he had prepared something at that level for East Coasts. Turns out he did. His routine is ridiculous, and he nails it dropless to boot. Watching Evan and Brian's routines hammers home to me that I'm going to have to nail my routine the next day, cause an improvised routine wasn't going to cut it, even if it was dropless.

After routines end, I have a feeling I'm going to be seeded second the next day, which I'm actually pretty happy about. I'm also happy that even if I don't do well in Finals, at least I got a dropless routine at the tournament. I mention that to Evan, and he comments that it sucks we both went dropless on the first day, since its so hard/rare for people to go dropless in both rounds of a tournament. I agree, but hope we can buck the trend.

Next: Saturday Circle contest

[Cass]

Sorry for not taking the top post. Have a photo anyway.

[C-Fan]

Thanks Cassy!

Saturday Circle Comp

After routines are over, I get back to warming up for circle. For me, that's basically just practicing my stock big tricks (which I use for my opening combos) as well as my bread and butter tricks (to fill in the runs). Given my family/non-footbag friend obligations for the weekend, I am very aware that I won't have as much time for casual shred at this event as I'd like. Therefore, I make a point to play with new people during my warm ups and cool downs. I introduce myself to April and Marc Peralta, and play with them for a bit. April's fairy sets are impressive, so I challenge her to fairy ss dyno, and she has some good looks at it. I hop out of the circle to get some water, and as I do the Circle pools are announced. I listen with anticipation, as there are many players in attendance who I feel could potentially upset me. There are 4 pools, and the top seeds in them are Evan, myself, Bear, and I think Chris Dean? Of the 4 of us, I only have confidence that Evan is guaranteed to make Finals, since the following players are going to be distributed in the pools somehow: Adam Greenwood, Nick Polini, Kevin Hogan, and Matt Kemmer. That's a pretty scary lineup of players, for non-top seeds.

My pool is announced, and I grimace when I hear that Greenwood is in my pool. My head swivels around, and I see Greenwood looking around at the same time looking for me. We make eye contact and both shake our heads slowly. Yeah, that's not going to be a fun pool. I hop into another circle to warm up, this time with Doug Tank and Derek Littlefield I think? 5 minutes into this warmup circle, Drew announces there's been a change in the pools. In good news, I've moved up to an earlier pool, which means I won't have to stay warm as long. In other good news, Adam is no longer in my circle. In bad news? Matt Kemmer is in my circle. While I love playing with Kemmer in a normal circle, I am very aware he could potentially upset me in competition. While my main goal for the competition is to win routines, I also would love to medal in circles as well. I don't want to be upset in the first round.

The members of my circle end up seeking each other out, and we agree to warm up together. Mikie Etlinger, Derek, Kemmer, and myself. It's interesting warming up together, since it gives us all a chance to size each other up, and conceivably even develop strategies against each other. Equally importantly, it also gives us all a chance to get comfortable with the same bag. During warmups Kemmer looks solid. I feel good, but not great, and I feel like I can sense Kemmer smells blood in the water. Ideally, I'd like to plant a seed of doubt in his head, but I'm not sure how. The first pool of circles ends, so our circle moves into the competition area to continue our warmups. At this stage, I feel good enough about my bread and butter tricks, that I don't feel the need to practice them anymore. Instead, I try for a clownface...and hit it! For a second I think about hand catching it, but decide to go for a full on string. I don't know if it fazes Matt at all, but it gets his attention. A minute later, competition starts again.

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TJIHXYfMncc[/youtube]

That was an interesting circle. I wasted 1 full turn in each round, which is pretty bad. Usually I only waste 1 turn total over 2 rounds, and my good circle performances I don't waste any turns. So the fact I was able to advance with 2 bad turns is pretty lucky. I was impressed with Mikie. He was playing about that well before comp, but its not easy to play at the same level in comp as you did before. Derek played well too. In his first couple turns I thought he was worrying too much about showing his clippers, so much so that I went up to him during one of Kemmer's turns to tell him to not be afraid to play to his strengths, and unleash some toe fury. I think he took it to heart, as subsequent turns looked stronger and more toe-focused. Matt played OK. We were about equally inconsistent. I think he could have taken advantage of my inconsistency to force an upset. Then again, I might have picked things up more if I felt more threatened. Hard to say.

Once circle is over, I warm down by introducing myself to, and shredding with, more of the PSU crew. It was kind of weird meeting them in person, since I read most of their blogs and have seen videos of them, so I felt like I kind of already knew them. Especially enjoyed playing with Babyak, since I like his trick selection. I also got to shred with and catch up with Age, which was a nice surprise. Hadn't seen her in a few years, so it was good to see her playing again. Eventually results are announced, and I'm relieved to hear I made the cut in Circles. I text my wife letting her know Day 1 went pretty much perfectly, as I made the cut to finals in both events, and got a dropless routine along the way.

I take my time stretching down and chatting with people, and then get a ride into Manhattan with Pascal and Evan. We meet up with Haley and Pascal's wife, and get dinner at this weird place where there was common open seating, but lots of restaurants. It's great to catch up with Pascal and Dyane, since they're one of my favorite couples and always make great conversation. I get Evan a ramen and beer...the beer is great, but the ramen is meh. I'll have to get better Japanese with him when I'm in Vegas next month. After a good amount of food, beer and convo, we say goodbye to Pascal and Dyane and subway home.

Next: Sunday comps

[C-Fan]

Sunday Routines

Saturday night I got to sleep in a proper bed, so Sunday I felt a lot better rested. I didn't drink too much the night before, so no hangover worries, and my legs felt pretty good too. I also felt good since I was entering the day with second seed in both events, and this time my routine wouldn't be improvised. We start the morning off by walking a few blocks through Brooklyn to meet up with Haley's college friends for brunch. I steered conversation away from competition, since I was looking for a distraction from the tournament so I wouldn't stress out too much. After brunch we walk down Atlantic Avenue, where they're already setting up for the Atlantic Antic festival. While there's lots of cool stuff going on, my mind starts wandering towards competition. I'm a bit more nervous than I'd like, but at least I didn't drink as much coffee with breakfast, so its controllable.

We say goodbye to Haley's friends, and start walking over to the site. Just like the previous day, its in a location I'd never been to before. Also similar to the previous day, I'm one of the last people to arrive on site. I start to change into my gear when I hear Drew on the mic announce: "Open routines competitors! If you are using a different song than yesterday, please come to the judges table and give your music to Ivan." I continue changing into my gear, and kick a bag a few times to start warming up. I hear Drew again on the mic: "the previous announcement only applies to Ken Somolinos. KEN SOMOLINOS! Please bring your music to Ivan." I laugh pretty hard at this, and sheepishly walk to the table with my iPod.

I warm up pretty easily and quickly, so when the first competitor is called up to the competition area, I don't feel rushed. I don't watch any of the routines before me, since that always distracts me or makes me nervous. I am vaguely aware though that nobody has gone dropless, which takes some pressure off of me. I check my laces before going to the competition area, and take my time walking the space before I indicate I'm ready. There's lot of leaves on the floor, so I spend a few seconds clearing an area off as best as I can. I take one last deep breath, then cue Ivan to start the music.

The first few seconds of the music float over me, comforting in their familiarity. I think about how many times this summer I've heard those chanting voices, both in practice, and on my ipod mentally practicing. I feel nervous, but also confident...its a feeling I don't get outside of competition, and I savor it. I get through the opening unusuals section without any problems, and make it through the toes section, and nail my first paused cue. I continue to feel good through the next section, though I'm a second off starting my juggle. I end it on time though, and without dropping on any of the juggle sections I'm most prone to dropping on. At this stage I am aware that I'm 75% through the routine and I've hit my cues and gone dropless. I know that if I stay focused I'm likely to finish with a 0-1 drop routine with good execution. Like clockwork, this is followed by my first real messups of the routine. I'm supposed to do a quick series of mini-toes, followed by knee kicks, followed by fliers. Instead, my minitoes get out of control, and then my knee bumps do too. I have to break up both sections with some controlling kicks, which is less than ideal, but certainly better than a drop. I smile sheepishly at the audience, a combination of apologetic for messing up my choreo, and guiltily happy I didn't drop. I gird myself to push through the end of the routine without any more screw ups. I come up on the section of the routine that has the majority of my five adds, and it goes pretty well. I make an adjustment of the fly when I feel my set for tomahawk is off, and end up doing it 3 tricks later. I don't think anybody noticed. I go through my last cycle of unusuals...and holy shit I almost dropped a toe stall out of the squeeze. Holy shit that was close...the bag was even rolling off and somehow it didn't. I don't have time to celebrate though since the fliers cues are about to start. I hit the fliers, and get set for the final trick. Depending what clipper foot has the bag on the final beat, I'm either going to PSW or paradox torque. I go with what feels right, crank the paradox torque and....hand catch! Yes! I pump my fist, then find the presence of mind to bow to the judges and the audience.

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_C70aMVrgzw[/youtube]

I walk off and make a bee-line to Haley, slapping some high fives along the way. I give Haley a big hug, and feel the relief just wash over me. I tell her: "win or lose, I can sleep well. I got the dropless in finals that I wanted." I turn around and see Barrett filming me still. Being in NYC and seeing Barrett after a dropless routine brings me back to the summer of 2008, when I got my first ever dropless at Barrett's tournament, and he rushed out to bear hug me. "Where's that bear hug?" I ask as I bring him in for a hug. I walk back out to the competition area to recover my juggle bag, which I had thrown. I still can't believe I bought it less than 24 hours earlier, but it was already good enough that I used it in 2 dropless routines. I slink off to the sidelines to watch Evan's final routine. It's a weird feeling knowing that my placement in the tournament is going to be decided on the actions of another player in the next 2 minutes. That said, I feel happy knowing that no matter what happens, I performed at my best and put the pressure on the top seed to beat me. Evan's music starts, and from the get go Evan looks strong. Its the same routine as the previous day, and for the first minute 40 plus seconds it looks like he's going to execute it as well as he did on Saturday. Then, an unexpected drop on a symp whirl. Evan recovers well, and finishes on a tomahawk.

My gut reaction once Evan's routine is over, is that it could go either way. While Evan had the one drop, I thought his difficulty was a lot higher than mine. Later, when I rewatched both routines, I didn't note as much of a difficulty disparity (I had 5 five adds, Evan had 4 similarly hard tricks), but even so I thought it'd be a very close decision. I give Evan props, and tell him I think it'll be close. Then we track down Greenwood so we can get ready for Circle. I think Evan's as anxious as I am to get competition done, so we head back into the competition area to pick a bag and get going.

Next: Circle Finals

[C-Fan]

Circle Finals

Once routines are over, I start warming up immediately for Circle Finals. Since I had 2nd seed in routines, my body is still pretty warm. It's great that I don't have to warm up again from scratch, since I've noticed my body isn't as good at that now that I'm older. At some point, Jon Schneider gets a leaf blower and clears the competition area of leaves. I don't think it would have messed us up, but its nice to have one less factor to worry about.

At this stage of the tournament, I'm already analyzing my floor and my ceiling for the tournament. My absolute worst case scenario at this stage, is if I take 4th in Circles and 2nd in routines. Even in that situation though, at least I'd be able to say I got 2 dropless routines and gave it my best shot in routines. My absolute best case scenario at this stage is if I win routines, and I somehow manage to upset Evan to win Circles. That'd be pretty epic. In any case, at this stage I feel happy I did well in routines, and my body feels good enough that I like my chances to pick up another medal in circle.

Initially its just Evan, Adam and myself warming up, since Chris Dean is wrapping up judging. We have two candidate bags, and we all appear to like them both equally. Chris joins us for a few turns, and we all look pretty solid. The only notable for me in the warmups is hitting a gansta party first try. I pass it to Evan, who tries for gansta and misses. I know its extremely unlikely he'll miss it twice in a row, so I take advantage of the Piltzed miss and yell "Boo this man!" Sure enough, on his next try he BSOSes gangsta.

Competition begins with Drew introducing the competitors on the mic. All weekend long, Drew introduced me as "from Denver, but original NYFA" which meant a lot to me. While I've lived in Denver 4 years now, I'll always be NYFA, and it meant a lot to me that NYFA still considers me one of their own. They also introduced Chris Dean as "from Portland, but from upstate NY" which was pretty cool too. It struck me though, that finals at East Coast champs was made up of residents of California, Nevada, Colorado, and Ontario. So the Eastern- most competitor in circles finals was from Toronto, which I find kind of funny.

Circle comp starts in earnest, and I feel good mentally and physically. Adam and Chris are playing well, and I make a point to enjoy just being in the circle with them. I know this is probably my only opportunity to play with them all weekend, so I try and view them more as friends than competitors. I'm also aware I probably won't get to play with Evan other than this circle, but in his case I know I'll see him in a few weeks, so it seems less urgent. I'm happy with how I play. I don't remember blowing any turns, and I had a couple good ones. One strange thing that happened though, was the music cutting out (or did the song just end?) in the middle of one my runs. I even yelled out "music please!" when it happened. It's weird, this has happened to me so many times in circle comps. I guess this was better than at NOLA jam, when the Pandora channel switched to a commercial for Subway sandwiches in the middle of one of my turns.

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FOjlfFWHkHo[/youtube]

The other funny moment for me in Circles, happened with Matt Kemmer. At some point the previous day, Matt and I were joking about how much I loved giving crazy/stupid pass back passes in Circle comp. Stuff like eclipses and pendulums and other such nonsense. At one point I joked with him that I should get credit for those passes, and that there should be a check box on the judging sheets that indicated if there was a stupid passback completed. Right before Circle finals began on Sunday, Matt runs up to me from the judging table, and shows me his judging sheet. Sure enough, he has added a box by my name that says "stupid passback pass." I laugh, and forget about it for the first few turns of comp. Chris Dean was in front of me in the lineup, and during the whole first round he never needed a passback. Then in the density round, he starts a turn with matador-food pro...drop! I ready myself for a crazy passback, but Chris' handtoss hits me right above my crotch so I can't do anything with it. I catch the bag, make eye contact with Kemmer at the judges table, shake my head and defeatedly pass it back to Chris...by hand.

By the end of Circles I feel pretty exhausted, but I also felt like I was able to give maximum effort throughout the final circle, and that fatigue didn't come into play in my performance. My gut instinct after Evan's final turn is that he'll take Circle, and I'll probably come in second. As for routines, I'm genuinely unsure if I'll finish first or second. But at this stage, I'm just happy with how I competed in both events, and am happy to finish wherever the judges decide. I can already feel the energy draining out of my body, but I make an attempt to join some casual circles before results are announced. I see a circle with Evan, Bear, and Polini and jump at the chance to join, since I haven't played at all with Nick or Bear all tourney, and only in comp with Evan. When I ask though, I'm told it's a "mobius record attempt circle."

A few minutes later awards ceremony starts. I'm a bit sad, because I know that'll mark the end of footbag for me for the day, but I'm also excited because I want to find out how things shook out. They announce the intermediate winners, and I feel bad I had to miss most of the intermediate comp. Then they announce the open events, mixed with net events. When open routines are announced, they go in reverse order. When they announce third place, I tighten up for a second as I know it's possible I finished lower than I'm expecting. "From California...Brian Bear!" Phew. I exhale a little, but not all the way, since the key moment is still coming. "In second place...from Las Vegas..." I finally exhale, hug Haley, and applaud Evan. Jon Schneider calls me up with: "winning East Coasts for the 4th time, and its a pleasure each time...Ken Somolinos!" I go up and give Jon a big hug, and thank the judges. Circles are announced a few minutes later, and I'm pleased to take second in Circles. I'm pleasantly surprised by the prize purse too. I compete for the thrill of competing more than anything else, but its nice to be on vacation and get a little boost like that to buy drinks and treat your friends to food, etc.

At this stage the PSU crew is already clearing out, so I jam in a bunch of farewells. My body has completely cooled down now, and combined with the emotional rollercoaster of competing and the awards ceremony, I'm done for the day shredwise. Haley is hungry, and we still want to check out the Dumbo festival, so make the rounds saying goodbyes and we head out to eat.

Next: Sunday night fun, tourney closeout

[C-Fan]

Sunday, Post-Competition

Haley and I walk down to Dumbo, and get some coal fired pizza at Juliana's, to celebrate the tournament being over. It's good to sit down and have a beer, since my brain is still processing the flood of emotions associated with competing, winning, and saying goodbye to everybody. I feel a lot better after the meal. Our plan is to walk the Dumbo festival for a bit, but we take a wrong turn and end up walking on the Brooklyn Heights Promenade at sunset, which is gorgeous.



We walk back to Stan's place after that to shower up and plan our evening. I don't know exactly who's still in town, but I figure most people will be leaving the next day, so I want to see whoever I can and do something fun. I call Barrett and he's on board, and then I call the shred house and feel them out. I get the sense from everybody that we're all tired, but I really want people to go out and do something fun in NYC. I just think it'd be a shame for people who have never been to NYC to spend their whole time in the shred house and not do something fun in the city. I work the phones pretty hard, and the plan we come up with is for us all to meet at a real dive-y bowling alley in Brooklyn, and for us to take cabs there.

In a happy surprise, the plan worked out very well! We all showed up within 10 minutes of each other, we were able to get 2 lanes next to each other, and drinks were pretty affordable. "We" ended up being Haley, Barrett, Derek L, Bear, Cassy, Evan and myself. None of us bowled particularly well, but we all had a good time chatting, cheering for each other, and drinking. The lanes to our right were taken by somebody's birthday party, and when his party ended he gave us all donuts, which was very nice of him and also hit the spot. Once our time bowling was up, we moved to the next room and got in a few games of pool. I can't believe I used to be on a pool team...I really suck at pool. Again though, good times were had. We call it a night, but the farewells aren't bad at all since I know I'm going to see everybody the next day.



Monday

Haley and I clean up Stan's place as best as we can, and then take a cab to Barrett's place. It's not that far, and it should be pretty straightforward, but our cabbie doesn't speak English very well and also has no idea where he's going. He also doesn't know the names of major roads/highways like the BQE, so the whole trip to Barrett's is terrifying. At one point when I realize he's not understanding my English, I start yelling directions to him in Spanish, which doesn't seem to work any better. Halfway through the cab ride I realize the guy is Ukrainian or Russian, so that explains why the Spanish didn't work. We almost get hit by a truck and we make a bunch of illegal turns, but my favorite move of his happens when we come upon a stopped school bus with the stop sign and lights sticking out. The car in front of us is stopped because of this, but our cabbie starts honking furiously at him to move. The guy is yelling back that he can't move until the bus does, since it's basically a red light. Cabbie don't care. Cabbie drives around the car and schoolbus, and I cringe, praying we don't hit any kids. Miraculously we arrive at Barrett's in one piece. I pay the driver and say "spacebo," to let him know I finally realized he wasn't Spanish. He laughs at that and says back in a good natured tone: "blarghiskya blahblah sho!" Which I'm hoping meant "you're welcome," but could just as easily have meant "fuck you, and fuck your country's stupid traffic laws!"

We dump our stuff at Barrett's place, and then head out to check out the city. The plan is for me to meet up with everybody for a shred in Central Park, but that doesn't end up happening. Haley and I explore the city, and at this point my legs feel like they're going to fall off. Around dusk we make our way to Central Park where Evan, Bear, Derek and Barrett have just wrapped up their session. Perfect timing. As we walk back to the subway, we pass the bandshell in Central Park, which I point out to everybody as the place I first saw freestyle footbag, back in 1997. That moment changed my life. It's a nice bookend to the trip to see it in person again. Back at Barrett's place I say goodbye to Bear and Derek. I'm sad to say goodbye, but given they live near a place I go to on business regularly (Sacramento), I'm optimistic I'll see them again sooner than later. I then help Barrett move a heavy AC unit up and down 3 flights of stairs, which makes me totally ready for dinner.

Evan, Rabbit, Haley and I head out to dinner at an Ethiopian place. I ate a lot of Ethiopian when I lived in DC, since there's a big community there, so I didn't expect this place to be at that level. Instead, it ends up being the best Ethiopian food I'd ever had! We pick up some booze on the way home, and back at Barrett's we just chat and drink for a bit before calling it a night. Evan gets up at like 4 am to get to the airport, but this is an easy goodbye for me, both since I'm groggy as hell, and also because I know I'm going to see him in like 3 weeks.

Tuesday

We start the day off by walking through the Hasidic neighborhood of Williamsburg to get jewish pastries for breakfast at my favorite bakery. I love walking through that neighborhood, since it feels like you've magically stepped into 1950s NYC. All the men have beards and curls, all wear bekishes (long black coats), and all have the traditional hat. The kids all have the felt caps on and curls, and the women all wear long dresses and nice hair pieces, like you'd see in mad men. Rabbit treats us to a breakfast of rugalach and babka, and we eat it at a park. It's ridiculously good.



We decide to spend the rest of the morning walking Williamsburg, and we have good conversation throughout. We get lunch at a fusion Mexican/Korean place, which ends up being my favorite meal of the trip. Stuff like nachos with kimchee. On the trip home Barrett and I have some good conversation about event planning, and what it would take to host an even better tournament in NYC. I'm really excited to see the passion for footbag re-kindled in Barrett.



When we get back to Barrett's, I'm sad the trip is coming to an end, but that sadness is tempered by my utter and complete exhaustion. I'm running on fumes at this point. We give Barrett a couple of thank you gifts, pet his cat Gyzmo, and say goodbye.

Next: some quick thank yous and shout outs.

[C-Fan]

It's been fun doing this long write up of East Coasts, mostly because it was a super fun weekend and its nice to reminisce. I would have liked to have played more with everybody, and spent more time hanging out at the tournament, but given my non-footbag family/friend obligations in the area, it just wasn't in the cards. Still managed to have a great time though thanks to a lot of people.

Some shout outs and thank yous:
Thank you to Ivan for a million different things. Thank you for fixing my GoPro. Thank you for fixing my Hania bag. Thank you for custom stitching me a bag so awesome, I used it in competition within 20 minutes of buying it. Thank you for running music at the event, and especially for playing some Dveloped. Thank you for filming all the comps and getting it out so quickly; it was great to see everything I missed, and it also helped me with my writeup. I owe you a few nice meals next time I see you. I feel bad we didn't get to spend more time together at this event.
Thank you to Barrett for the crash space Monday night, and for all the hanging out. While it's too bad we didn't karaoke, we had a good night out with the Bowling/Pool, and so many good meals. You're like our meal good luck charm. Great talking with you about NYFA, organizing, and footbag in general. I really hope you're inspired by the shredding winds to come back to footbag.
Props to Bruce Dole for all of his logistic work behind the scenes. The trophies and t-shirts looked particularly good this year. I also know that many players might not have made the decision to come to the tournament if you hadn't generously offered crash space, which I hope nobody takes for granted. Thank you also for judging.
Props to Jon Schneider for all your organizing work. I know you didn't even get to play at your own tournament. I just wish we had had more of a chance to catch up; it doesn't feel like a proper tournament without a long conversation with you.
Shout out to Cassy, Derek, Evan, Brian and Barrett for coming out Sunday night to bowl, shoot pool, and be social. I'm so glad you did. I wish we all didn't live so far away from each other.
Shout out to Matt Kemmer, for being such a positive presence in and out of the circle. It was a joy to get to shred with you, without you getting injured because of me. We should do that more often.
Thank you to Stan, even though he doesn't read the forums or play footbag anymore. It was great to catch up and hang out, and I can't thank you enough for letting us crash for 3 nights at your place. Also thanks for introducing us to Bob's Burgers...I will check out more for sure.
Shout out to the PSU crew. It was great to finally meet you all! I hope to see you at future tournaments, and have more time to shred with each of you.
Thank you to Evan for pushing me to compete my hardest all weekend. I'm glad we got to hang out some, and that we get to hang out in like 10 days!
Thank you to Haley, for being so supportive and patient at footbag tournaments.
---End of ECFC 2014 bloggage---

Switching gears entirely, this past weekend Red Husted was in Boulder! I hadn't played footbag since Circle Finals at East Coasts, but decided to cut short my rest to meet up with Red, cause Red's the man. We headed up to Boulder in the morning, checked out the farmer's market, then met with Red around noon. We staked out a nice spot on the Pearl Street mall, and had an intense 2 man session for over an hour. My only goal for the session was to hit a Boulder Beater (quantum egg), since that trick was invented in Boulder by Sunil back in like the year 2000. I'll blog more about it later, but for now here's Part 1 of our session. Yes, I got enough footage of the two of us that I'm breaking this into 2 parts. I need to track down some new music for the second part...

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0LP1VKkjh-0[/youtube]

[dolercoaster]

Epic write up, Ken, thanks for taking the time to do that! If the success of a tournament can be measured by the quality of the write-ups, I think we did damn well this year.

Thanks for making the trip over from the 6th borough!

[h0ag3yb3atZ]

loved the new vid, some killer runs.

I wish we played more at ECFC but honestly I felt so shitty I don't even think I could have played much with you without feeling self conscious of how bad I was playing. We'll have to make up for it soon.

Inspiring circle performance too homie, you're a blast to watch!

[Sporatical_Distractions]

The last thing I expected after a month away from modified was Red footage. Thanks for posting Ken. Glad you had fun at east coasts

[C-Fan]

Bruce: I agree. The number of write-ups for ECFC definitely reflected the success of the tournament in my opinion.
Hogan: I didn't get to play with nearly enough people at ECFC. You, Bear, and Polini were right at the top of that list too. I hope you heal up soon...I want to see some sick video come out of the Boston jam.
Crowley: Thanks man! Red and I had a great session last weekend. I even got enough footage to make 2 videos! I'll release the second one in my next post.

Quick update post on my end: my left foot started hurting pretty badly the day after my shred with Red in Boulder. I couldn't put weight on the ball of my foot, so for a few days I was walking by putting the weight on the heel of that foot. I took off 5 days from footbag, but thankfully it's started feeling better again. I've gotten in a couple light sessions this weekend, but with the restriction that I don't do any symposium or sets.

Despite this restriction, I did manage to hit a clean triple pickup, which is new for me. Quick video:

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-7W7AB2B0jQ[/youtube]

Gonna go out in an hour to shred outside. I think I'll keep the same restrictions, so hopefully it's a lighter downtime session.

[Derek]

Bummer about the injury, but seems like you are gettin' back into the swing of things just fine. I got REALLY excited about the ss DLOs, cause it so looked like you were gonna go for about 20 contacts, 13 is still mighty bangin'. Downtime is funtime. Props on the Triple P! Slow-mo revealed it to be as clean as I thought. The two videos of you and "Red" were very pleasing to my eyeballs. You both had some tasty strings that were pretty fancy.

[boyle]

Triple pickup looked super smooth. Not bad for a light session. ...

[C-Fan]

I'm glad I forced myself to blog East Coasts. Things have been pretty crazy busy since then, so I have fallen behind on both blogging and filming. I probably should have spent some of my recent time blogging here rather than trolling Derek's blog.

Quick recap of things since East Coasts. I took off a good 4 days or so after the tournament, and I would have taken more off except that Red Husted was in Boulder. I had one really strong session with him, but that resulted in a weird left foot injury which forced me to take off about 5 days. I had a few sessions after that where I restricted my game to omit symposium and sets, thinking that'd be easier on my body. In theory it was, but it also led to me doing more twisty paradox tricks, which made my hips sore. I did manage to hit a couple things I was happy with, including the aforementioned triple pickups as well as a cool downtime drill I never thought I'd get:

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=drPTECajBFk[/youtube]

I then dedicated two sessions to trying to reclaim some toe-to-toe world records Derek had taken from me. That was a good challenge, in that it didn't annoy my hips at all, and also didn't push my body too hard. It was also fun to troll Derek.

On Wednesday my body was pretty exhausted, but I didn't want to take a rest day because the weather was gorgeous and I didn't want to waste it. I forced myself to play, and had a real fun session (video later). I thought that would result in a guaranteed rest day on Thursday, but then I got a text from Johnny Sarah Wednesday night. He was going to be in town on Thursday, and only Thursday, and could I hang out? In light of that new development, I went into Denver after work on Thursday to meet up and shred with Johnny. My body was downright angry at me at this stage, but managed a decent session. I'm definitely taking today and tomorrow off though. Monday I fly to Vegas for a week, so hopefully I can heal up and get in good shape for my sessions with Evan and hopefully Overbo too.

[C-Fan]

Less than 18 hours away from shredding with Gatesman in Vegas. Stoked.

Here's a quick vid of my past 2 solo sessions. Got some new tricks (superego, flip bladerunner) and new combos I was happy with.

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wH5sYskBiuU[/youtube]

[C-Fan]

Day 4 of 6 in Las Vegas on this trip. I've played footbag every day I've been here, all with Evan. I've been filming too, though the quality is going to be pretty varied. Since I'm playing in unfamiliar locations, framing shots correctly has been a challenge. I've also been working full work days and driving home during rush hour, so my past two sessions I was also filming around dusk, which isn't ideal for image quality.

Evan has played really well every session. I'm going to try and send my footage to Ivan, since it really deserves a better edit than I can provide. I'm also already way behind on editing and posting footage. I still haven't touched my footage from the session with Johnny Sarah.

Shredwise I've been hit and miss on this trip. Work has been kicking my ass lately, and I've had more than a few sessions lately where that's encroached on my playing mentality. It's weird and frustrating that I can't let go of work sometimes when playing. My first session out here I hit some good tricks and had a good mentality, but was kind of low energy. The second session I was very happy with how I played, but the session was cut short by the sun going down. Third session we picked our shred spot since it was scenic, but the footing was slippery and we were playing with a bad bag because we didn't want to risk a good bag falling into the swamp water. That was an incredibly frustrating session.

Gonna play again today with Evan. I have enough good footage that I don't care too much about backgrounds. I just want to play on a good surface with a good bag and have a redeeming session.

I fly back to Denver Saturday afternoon. Haley wants to do a roller skating party Saturday night, and we have our first 5K run on Sunday. I was kind of planning on easing into fall by playing less footbag, so this should be a good way to do that. I see a lot of Team Fortress 2 on the horizon when I get back, so I should pack in all the footbag I can while I'm still here in Vegas.

Gonna close this out with part 2 of my shred with Red in Boulder:
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TD4uTlTK2nY[/youtube]

[Derek]

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W1ePQDnIqA4[/youtube]

Only one I could get first try, the rest brought me anguish. Poop, I say. Props on Predator B2B, and BIG fan of flip Bladerunner. Truckin' through work/shred like a champ, I'd imagine. Roller skating party sounds pretty rad!

[Matt K]

Do you think you could manage a genuine trick into one of your harder furious tricks? Blurry Whirl>Genesis?

[C-Fan]

No post in almost a week, partially because I've been super busy with work, but also partially because I'm taking a small break from playing. My trip to Vegas was great. Work was a little harder than expected, but I still managed to see Evan every day I was there. Skaggs and Overbo also made it out to one session, and they still have the skills. My shred was hit and miss while I was in Vegas. I had one piss-poor session which I think was due to a tough work day, and my final session was also terrible, probably due to some chicken fingers I didn't process well. That session I pretty much didn't hit anything, felt weird in the stomach the whole time, and then threw up. Nasty.

In good news, I managed to get a ton of good footage of Evan while I was out there. Nice mix of long strings, sick 3s, drills, and big tricks (yes, including swirling whirring swirl). I've been feeding the clips to Ivan through a slow trickle of Dropbox transfers, so hopefully he can do something great with it.

I got back on Saturday, and Sunday I jogged my first 5K with Haley. She was recovering from a sprained ankle, so we didn't run hard. That was just fine with me, since I was still dealing with the digestive trauma of Vegas chicken fingers. It was a Halloween 5K, so we dressed in costumes. We figured based on our practice runs that I would be pacing her by running slightly in front of her, so I dressed up like a mailman and she was a dog chasing me for 5K. It went over really well with the other runners:



I figured my legs would hurt from the 5K, but they actually recovered pretty fast. I'm still going to take some time off though. I feel like I was pushing pretty hard with footbag before East Coasts, and even when I was in Vegas playing with Evan I felt like mentally it was becoming a chore to play. Hopefully a week or two off refreshes me mentally.

Derek: props on the egg record! That's super legit. I may try again when I come back, but 21 may be safe.

Matt: I think the most likely ones for me would be blw/darkwalk-clownface, or maybe nemesis. Genesis is surprisingly hard. Really though, I'd be much happier if I could just learn to jani on flip. Something like jani x2 would be more satisfying than darkwalk-clownface to me. I can try these after I get back to playing, though I probably want to build up to that over a few sessions.

On that note, I think I'm going to take more time off when winter really hits, then spend the end of the winter building back up to where I'm at now. If Worlds are in Copenhagen, I'm pretty much guaranteeing I'll be there. And if I go, I'm going to train the hell out of a routine. I'd be thrilled if I could make Finals again, and hopefully improve on my finish.

I still haven't made a video of my shred with Johnny Sarah, so here's a video from 3.5 years ago:

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1KDCIKgnCNo[/youtube]

[max]

ha those are two awesome costumes for a 5k run! Props